If your home was built before 1978, it’s essential to the health of your family that you ask an important question: Will my home improvement project disturb lead-based paint?
“We think schools should be proactive and addressing this issue now to ensure that the drinking water that they’re providing to their children is safe,” says attorney Tom Irwin of the Conservation Law Foundation, which lobbied for the new law.
“Because this is one of Vermont’s vulnerable populations, we need to prioritize safe drinking water in schools,” Jen Duggan, director of Conservation Law Foundation Vermont, said in an interview Thursday.
Schools and childcare centers – places where children spend so much time – can have unsafe levels of lead in their water, putting our kids’ health at risk. To ensure safe water, it’s time for parents and teachers to demand that schools test their water for lead and take measures necessary to protect the health of schoolchildren.
For the past four years, Tom Irwin has talked to countless people about the tragedy of childhood lead poisoning. Especially before the Flint crisis put lead issues back in the headlines, he often would be met with the incredulous response, “But haven’t we solved that problem already?” It’s a fair question, says Irwin, director of… Continue reading Stopping Childhood Lead Poisoning
In this special issue of Conservation Matters, we want to take you behind the scenes of our work, to give you a glimpse into how we break down challenges and take advantage of opportunities to create a healthy, thriving New England – not just for today, but for generations to come.
A new law in New Hampshire adopts much-needed protections to stem the tide of childhood lead poisoning cases in the state.
“For too long, we’ve put New Hampshire kids on the front lines of this serious public health problem – risking their health and their futures with the permanent effects of lead poisoning,” said Tom Irwin, Director of the New Hampshire office of Conservation Law Foundation. “Today’s vote is a victory for kids across the state. And because childhood lead poisoning often has a disproportionate impact on low-income communities and people of color, creating yet another barrier to breaking the cycle of poverty, today’s vote is a victory for some of New Hampshire’s most vulnerable children and families. We look forward to seeing the Governor sign this important bill into law.”
We’re in the home stretch of our work to strengthen New Hampshire’s lead laws to better protect kids from the preventable tragedy of childhood lead poisoning. But we need a final push to state Senators to see the bill through to the Governor’s desk.
“Childhood lead poisoning is a problem of statewide concern, affecting New Hampshire kids in rural and urban communities alike, and across all demographics, said Tom Irwin, director of the New Hampshire office of the Conservation Law Foundation. “But it’s a problem that disproportionately affects low-income families and some of our most vulnerable populations, and by impeding the ability of children to learn, it’s creating yet another barrier for families trying to break the cycle of poverty. Today, the House took an important step towards better protecting New Hampshire’s children and families.”
